The existence of objective moral values is evidence for God\u2019s existence, Paul Copan, a philosopher and Christian apologist, said at a meeting of the Evangelical Philosophical Society at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are certain moral truths that we all know,\u201d Copan, associate professor of philosophy and ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University, said Feb. 24, 2007. \u201cIf objective moral values exist, then it is extremely likely that a Creator exists.\u201d<\/p>\n
Copan, whose books defending the Christian faith include \u201cTrue for You, But Not for Me\u201d and \u201cHow Do You Know You\u2019re Not Wrong,\u201d said morality begins with certain self-evident principles upon which atheists and theists can agree.<\/p>\n
Citing atheistic philosophers David Brink and Kai Nielsen, Copan said atheists also appeal to objective ethics and human moral awareness. Oxford evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins also contends that people can be good without being policed by God, Copan said.<\/p>\n
In light of Romans 2, Christians should not be surprised when atheists live good, moral lives, Copan said. He quoted Daniel Dennett, a professing atheist from Tufts University, who wrote, \u201cPeople can be caring without a belief in immortality…. A scientific materialist may be concerned about justice, beauty, and even religious freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
By virtue of being made in God\u2019s image, atheists are connected to God the Creator, whose character is the source and metaphysical foundation for morality, human worth and dignity, Copan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone can know that humans have certain moral rights, but a far more fundamental question is, \u2018How did they come to be that way?\u2019\u201d Copan said.<\/p>\n
Naturalists have confused \u201cknowing\u201d and \u201cbeing\u201d — epistemology and ontology — by acknowledging certain truths but failing to explain why those truths exist, Copan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan the valueless, mindless, cause-and-effect physical processes of naturalism produce conscious humans with value and worth,\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
Copan cited naturalist\u2019s Colin McGinn\u2019s admission that, \u201cWe know that brains are the de facto causal basis of consciousness, but we have, it seems, no understanding of how this can be so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Theism offers a more natural and plausible explanation for why humans are \u201cvaluable, truth-seeking, morally responsible beings in a finely tuned, beautiful universe,\u201d Copan said. Humans have worth because they are the image-bearers of a good and personal God.<\/p>\n
Although naturalists may live moral lives, naturalism itself undermines objective ethics and undercuts a motivation for morality, Copan said. He quoted Dennett again, saying that while moral norms \u201ccontribute to social cohesion,\u201d they are \u201cillusory rule-worship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Copan referred to naturalist Michael Ruse who said moral values are \u201can illusion of our genes to get us to cooperate with each other.\u201d Seeing moral impulses the same as other impulses — such as the impulse to eat or scratch — doesn\u2019t inspire the pursuit of virtue, Copan said.<\/p>\n
Evolutionary ethics produce skepticism about a human\u2019s ability to know truth, Copan said, adding that Charles Darwin said, \u201cWith me, the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man\u2019s mind which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals are of any value or are even trustworthy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ethical foundations, then, are undermined by \u201can evolutionary process that is interested in fitness and survival but not true beliefs,\u201d Copan said.<\/p>\n
Theism offers a more plausible context for affirming human dignity than naturalism that puts moral objectivity and rational thought in question.<\/p>\n
Copan cited the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights to show that humans have an intrinsic understanding of human rights, regardless of religious convictions. He quoted French philosopher Jacques Maritain, one of the document\u2019s drafters, who said, \u201cGod and objective morality cannot be plausibly separated since God is the Creator of valuable, morally responsible human beings and is the very source of value.\u201d<\/p>\n
Copan concluded by saying that a moral argument alone doesn\u2019t prove the existence of the Christian God but can be supplemented with other arguments for God.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe moral argument points us to a supreme, personal, moral being who is worthy of worship and who made us with dignity and worth,\u201d Copan said. \u201cHe is a being to whom we are accountable and who could reasonably be called God.\u201d<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
[Origional illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #20475]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The existence of objective moral values is evidence for God\u2019s existence, Paul Copan, a philosopher and Christian apologist, said at a meeting of the Evangelical Philosophical Society at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. \u201cThere are certain moral truths that we all know,\u201d Copan, associate professor of philosophy and ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University, said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1193,58,995,1951,1950,900,1952],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6519"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6519\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}